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Darrell Issa asks business: Tell me what to change

The incoming chairman requested a list of regulations that would harm job growth. |
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NAM's "high-priority" regulatory list also includes OSHA consultation, noise and other policies, upcoming Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission controls regarding over-the-counter derivatives, Transportation Department limits on hours of service for truck drivers, and implementing the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act signed into law in 2008 by President George W. Bush.

"These are all high-priority regulations that can cost manufacturing jobs and will if implemented the wrong way or will as currently proposed or finalized," Palmieri said. "We're anxious for some oversight of these programs."

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He said there is a growing voice from "members on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, recognizing that the cumulative burden of regulation is a real problem and if we want to create more jobs and improve this economy, we need to get a handle on it."

Democrats, though, see this as a way for Issa to turn a partisan corner and dig his heels into attacking the administration in the next Congress.

"He's going about it in a way that's not gathering a lot of attention," said one Democratic committee aide. "This is where they're starting to cross the line into the political. They're definitely setting up this committee to go after the administration."

One person knowledgeable about the matter tells POLITICO that Issa on Dec. 29 appears to have re-sent more than 75 letters to administration officials.

Bardella acknowledged that Issa re-sent a host of unanswered missives recently. "This is something we've been working on since the election," he said. "Before we start something new, we want to get answers to the questions that have been ignored."

This includes past letters to Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and White House Counsel Robert Bauer regarding reports by POLITICO and others about the use of official travel for political purposes. In his letter to Bauer, Issa notes he wrote last June to the heads of 21 federal departments and agencies "requesting documents and information about the extent to which White House political personnel have been involved with planning, directing, or coordinating the travel of department and agency officials to participate in official or political public events."

Issa said that former Oversight and Investigations Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) did a similar probe of Bush administration officials in the prior Congress.

A letter from Issa and top Judiciary Committee Republican Lamar Smith initially sent Dec. 16, 2009, to Attorney General Eric Holder forwards information Republicans on those two panels received into the activities of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, and reiterating the Republicans' request for a Justice Department criminal investigation.

Another letter initially sent in October 2009 to Holder asks about "new media efforts [that] may be covertly attempting to shape public opinion," citing reports that Justice officials were anonymously posting online comments attacking critics of the administration.

One initially sent Oct. 15, 2009, asked Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to clarify a letter he sent Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. Issa's request followed a story by POLITICO at the time indicating that then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel coordinated an "assault" on Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and other administration critics by having Salazar and three other cabinet secretaries write letters to Brewer asking if she "wished to forfeit taxpayer money directed to Arizona by the stimulus" bill, Issa wrote.

Democrats are labeling the inquiries as partisan in tone, which Bardella dismisses. "Asking a question shouldn't be labeled partisan or political," he said. "The most constructive way forward would be to resubmit the questions, which we fully expect to be answered, and then, hopefully, move on."

Dear Corporate Overlord: I know you are currently enjoying record profits while the average American worker suffers. I know that many of you played a leading role in bringing our economy to the brink of disaster but despite that are taking home bonuses running into the tens of millions of dollars. I know that some of you were involved in the worst environmental catastrophe the world has ever seen. But you also spent $86 million to help me get into this position of power, so please, there must be something I can do to serve you. Just tell me what you want and I will bend over backwards to make it happen. Your humble servant, Darrel Issa

So what are you liberal so afraid of? Good forbid someone alse businesses what's holding them back from hiring. The Dem party use to be the party of the worker, I have no idea what they stand for now, maybe the party of the illegal immigrant?

From the comments, most of the posters are anti-business, anti-oil, anti-industry, and ANTI-JOBS. Maybe they have cushy government jobs and just dont give a flip about the economy. I'm retired and rich so I dont give a flip either. And thank you industry for providing me with many years of employment.

From the comments, most of the posters are anti-business, anti-oil, anti-industry, and ANTI-JOBS. Maybe they have cushy government jobs and just dont give a flip about the economy. I'm retired and rich so I dont give a flip either. And thank you industry for providing me with many years of employment.

My god someboby get a government paid doctor for this man. Clearly he has stockholm syndrome from years of abuse by his corporate overloards forcing him into doing their bidding. Wait a minute, I was wrong. It sounds like he's just someone who got a job and made a living working for a company and probably paid his fair share of taxes. Taxes that have help fund our government for years. lol.

They would be totally helpless without the brave men and women who mine coal, construct buildings, pump oil, catch fish, cut down trees and engage in factory work which is often loud, smokey, smelly, dirty and dangerous, to provide the modern conveniences these a holes take for granted.

They won't hire because you get rid of regulations, they'll just pocket the extra profits

No they leave the country to make their goods. You know countries that have labor rates that are a fraction of ours. Countries that are not going to over regulate them to the point they can't make a profit.

I know you're going to say they will do that anyway. Well the more you push overly burdensome regulations on them the easier it is for them to justify leaving this country. If you kick a dog enough times sooner or later it's going to leave.

""the repubs are letting the polluters poison the planet! The conservatives want to kill every dolphin and green plant in the universe!""You are correct. That is what business does in the absence of regulation. You might be too young to remember Love Canal, the Super fund sites, Three Mile Island the list is, literally, endless. Government regulation costs money. And it is the best money we spend. Business and free markets are good at making money for corporations. Government is good at protecting people. We need both. The folks who are always whining about too much regulation are the SAME folks who are suing the pants off of everyone in court because their kid got hurt by some toy.